On to Alabama! 10/19/12 to 10/21/12

I admit it. I was not looking forward to the rivers portion of the trip and I was not looking forward to Alabama. I was wrong about the rivers portion of the trip - so much more interesting than I thought it would be. Would I be wrong about Alabama?

I have a vision of Alabama in my mind fashioned from ugly and deadly civil rights battles, Jim Crow laws, and George Wallace. A favorite book is not flattering to Alabama. Slavery by Another Name is a marvelously disturbing book about the "re-enslavement of black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon, dealing extensively with an ugly part of Alabama history. I highly, highly recommend this book. I have been to Alabama before, mostly to close plants, distribution centers, and sales offices. I waited before these difficult announcements visiting blast furnaces operated with convict labor, great BBQ, and what appeared to me to be devastating poverty. So I did not come into this portion of the Loop with a good impressions of Alabama.

I find myself pleasantly surprised! The history is still there and it is still ugly and it is still true. But Alabama is surprisingly different than I expected!

Grand Harbor Marina in Pickwick Lake has a marker outside the entrance to the marina noting that it is exactly on the border of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. When leaving the marina, you turn right to head south on the Tennessee-Tombigbee canal to Mobile - we will do that in a few weeks. We turned left when leaving the marina to travel kind of east/southeast through the Tennessee River into Alabama. Our target is Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama for the American Great Looper Cruisers' Association rendezvous Sunday 10/21 through Wednesday 10/24/12. It is not a long trip, only about 20 miles, but we decided to take 2 or 3 days to get to Joe Wheeler leaving Grand Harbor on Wednesday 10/17 and needing to be in Rogersville on Saturday 10/20. I am glad we took our time.

We traveled with our great group, One September, Sareanna, Jim's Joy, and SeaQuell. Such a fun group!! We are starting to run into more loopers since we are closer to the rendezvous.

Our first stop in Alabama was down the Tennessee River to Florence, Alabama. Our first surprise! On the way we passed through the Natchez Trace and numerous wildlife refuges.

Weather was windy but clear and kind of chilly. Not bad running weather. We stayed at the Florence Municipal Marina, another reminder how well run marinas operate. The place was packed with loopers, probably upwards of 20 looping boats. The marina manager offered a loaner van and lots of tips where to visit and eat. We grilled out on Wednesday night, another feast. We are getting much better at this docktails thing. Our combined food effort is just magnificent while still being healthy.

Florence and sister cities Muscle Shoals and Sheffield is a sophisticated community compared to anything we have seen since leaving Peoria.

Florence is known as "birthplace of the Blues". W.C. Handy, born in Florence, is regarded as the "father of the blues". According to Wikipedia, muscians come from all over the US to participate in the W.C. Handy Music Festival held every year in the Florence/Sheffield/Muscle Shoals area. The Muscle Shoals sound epitomized by "I'll Take You There" by The Staple Singers. Paul Simon traveled to Muscle Shoals to use the Muscle shoals Rhythm Section in early solo music including, "Loves Me Like a Rock", and "Kodachroome". The Allman Brothers Band produced music here (one of my absolute favorite bands in the world). Wilson Pickett, Bob Dylan, and most famous probably Lynyrd Skynyrd all recorded in Muscle Shoals. For Dan Ruegamer and Marissa Burik, your fav the Black Keys recorded their sixth album, "Brothers", here. Local musicians are winning awards and recognition all over the US. Who'd have thought. Not me.

Florence also has a foodie component. Local farmers are growing sophisticated heirloom produce and livestock working closely with local restaurants. We stumbled upon a bit of this without knowing. On Thursday we went to the local grocery store to re-provision. (NOTE: We stop at a grocery store in almost every community to "re-provision". Mostly we are looking for booze!!) We picked up some Mok Mills Cheese Straws made in Muscle Shoals and I found W.D. Ricks Signature BBQ sauce from a local BBQ restaurant in Tuscumbia AL next to Muscle Shoals. Later that day I saw articles about both products and W.D. Ricks BBQ restaurant written up in Northern Alabama magazine!

The marina manager said we shouldn't miss the 360 Grill so we arranged a shuttle from the marina for 12 people and we went. We wanted to take advantage of the $20 steak deal they offered on Thursday nights. We were expecting a $20 steak like what you get at Golden Corral or one of those places. After all, this is Alabama. But no, this is Alabama. The Marriott 360 Grill is at the top of a tower constantly turning for a 360 view. It is also nationally known 4 Diamond restaurant featuring that locally grown heirloom produce and great meals. The menu was amazing. We sat at 3 tables of 4 so we could all see out the revolving windows. Kermit and I sat with Edie and Joe Rubin. Two of us had the steak special, or roast beast as Joe likes to say! Edie had grilled grouper and Kermit had short ribs cooked for 40 hours - they melted in your mouth!! The steak special was nothing from Golden Corral. This was prime grade beef, perfectly cooked with a complex wine based sauce, roasted potatoes, and green beans. I wanted to lick my plate it was so good. Dessert was the cutest little fried blueberry pie with house made buttermilk ice cream. The blueberries were fresh from a local farm and absolutely burst in your mouth with glorious flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

I hope you are getting the impression that this is no ordinary place.

After dinner we stopped in the bar to hear a musician who still has a bit of work to do to come up to the high standards set by his more famous Muscle Shoals brethren. The bar was filled with gold records, signed guitars, and pictures of famous people. We saw a face of an old man that seemed familiar and tried to place it. Was it Eli Wallach? No. Maybe it was someone related to the Muscle Shoals music scene? It was starting to dawn on us that there was more to Florence/Muscle Shoals than we knew at the time. So I googled "old man musiicians at Muscle Shoals". Believe it or not after a little searching on Google Images we discovered that the photo on the wall was probably Jerry Wexler, the famous producer in the 50s and 60s who was instrumental in making Ray Charles and Arletha Franklin famous. I guess there is much more to Alabama than I expected. The other stuff I knew before is still true but there is more to the story.

There is also more to see in this town. We piled into the marina van with One September, Sareanna, and SeaQuell (Jim's Joy took off for Joe Wheeler to make repairs before the rendezvoux) and saw a Frank Lloyd Wright house (!) and Helen Keller's childhood home. Yes, there is more to Alabama than meets the eye!

Things I didn't know about Helen Keller: 1) she was quite beautiful, 2) she lost her hearing and sight through a major illness at age 2 so she was not born that way, 3) she learned very, very quickly after figuring out the "water" thing, 4) the story told in The Miracle Worker was pretty close to the truth, 5) she is buried with her first teacher, Annie Sullivan, and her personal assistant who was with her until she died, and 6) her great-grandfather was John Quincy Adams so she has quite a pedigree. Fascinating.

We didn't go into the FLW Rosenbaum house. We had to get the van back. But the exterior is great. The house has been remodeled in the last few years and is open for tours.
 

Loopers were awakened on Thursday morning with the low hum of trolling motors. In addition to loopers, the marina hosted a bass tournament with about 150 boats!! I never experienced a bass tournament close up like this. Tournament participants put their boat in the water in the morning and take it out in the afternoon when you are done. It lasts 3 days. The first two days determine the top fishermen to participate in the finals on Saturday.

They gathered around a platform at 6am, sing the Star Spangled Banner, and off they go!!

All those waterbugs (our name for them) scooted out into the Tennessee River. They returned about 3pm, each fisherman pulling plastic bags of fish off their boats and lining up to get the fish weighed.

The put their bags in these big buckets with oxygen lines in them. They put the oxygen in their bags and move the bags into bucket after bucket.

 A guy weighs the fish and immediately announces that "Billy Bob caught 3 fish for a total weight of 9.6 pounds. Let's give Billy Bob a big hand. That puts him in 38th place. You get another chance tomorrow, Billy Bob!"

After the weigh in the fisherman goes behind the screen and gives his (hopefully) still alive fish to another guy who shoves the fish down a plastic tube to take another shot at getting caught tomorrow!! It was quite an operation!!





So much excitement, so little time! We left Florence AL on Thursday to go through Wilson Dam, the tallest dam we will go through on this trip with a 93 foot lift!! Very windy, it was hard to keep the boat next to the wall attached to the bollard.

Civil War battles on the Tennessee River 10/15 and 10/16/12

Today is Tuesday October 16, 2012. It is our 18th wedding anniversary!!! It is hard to believe we have been  married for 18 years. It seems like just yesterday Kermit and I married on a clear sunny fall day in Chicago to join our three children into a family. What a great ride!!

We left our heroes in New Johnsonville TN. I think Pebble Isle is now our favorite  marina. The two marinas since then pale in comparison.

In answer to the quiz in the last entry, Bob and Lynda from M/V Erika Lin filled in the details about the strange vessel at the Pebble Isle entry:  "The boat that sits at the entrance to Pebble Isle Marina was built by a man as his 'dream boat'. He spent some time sailing it and unfortunately he passed away. His wife inherited it, but abandoned it at the marina. The marina staff placed it at the entrance to their marina and had plans to restore the exterior and keep it in his memory. We visited Pebble Isle Marina exactly one year ago today and it looks like the restoration has been completed. You can view a "before" picture here on our blog:"

This is the before picture from Erika Lin:




You recall this is the "after" picture:

As someone traveling on a trip of a lifetime, it is pretty  neat to see the manifestation of someone else's dream in that boat!! It is also a symbol of the classiness of the folks at Pebble Isle that they would do such a nice thing in memory of a boater friend.

From Pebble Isle Marina we continued down the Tennessee River to Clinton TN. This relatively small marina has great people managing it but not much to do or see in Clinton. 

The town is famous for TD Streibling, a Pulitzer Prize winning author from this town. His home was turned into a library. The best thing to see in the library/museum is the original linoleum. That is saying something. No photos allowed inside though. The linoleum is too fragile. Seriously. 

The town does have a few pretty buildings that were there it was a thriving town around the Civil War. I leaned against this wrought iron railing and almost had a big problem!

We arrived on Saturday, saw the town and visited a great restaurant in the community, Meo Mio, pronounced Meo (like the cat) My-o. Kermit and I both had Cajun spiced rib eye - delicious. To make it more fun, the marina courtesy car was a regular car. We transported 18 people in 4 shifts in this vehicle!! Both ways!! It was great fun! Except for the 1 sober driver, Michael, who had to make numerous trips in a dark, dark night.

This marina has an interesting architecture. The marina itself is tucked into a little bay off the Tennessee River.

The docks are laid out in a kind of box shape with entrances at three sides. It sits way down in the banks since the water is so low. Like many marinas in the south the docks are covered with metal roofs which echo when leaves and rain drop on them. It is also quite humid under the roofs.

The entire superstructure rises and falls with the water level on floating docks connected to bollards just like the kind used in many of the big locks we go through.

The side posts are hooked onto bollards that automatically rise and fall with the water level, heaving with a metallic heaving periodically. It is an engineering achievement I think.

We staying in Clifton on Sunday during a morning thunder storm with wild winds. It cleared up a bit in the afternoon so we had great docktails instead of dinner. Kermit is getting a little tired of the snacks instead of dinner so I made baked ravioli so we could have something more substantial than nuts and potato chips. I am not sure he felt better but the party was great. There were over 10 looper boats, probably more. I lost count with the wine. We are traveling with 4 other boats, 3 other boats we see regularly since Green Turtle Bay and now there are at least 5 other boats hanging around. Lots of folks from the Great Lakes now, especially Michigan. Must be 4 boats at least from  Michigan. Really great people.

We left Clinton in deep fog on Monday morning 10/15/12. We didn't intend to leave in deep fog. It just happened that way. We saw the fog once we were out of the marina. We got some amazing photos:

We have more photos of the fog that we will load to Flickr shortly. 

We navigated using the gps almost exclusively since we could see nothing. In this photo of the gps you can see white through the windows because it was completely white in front of us. The gps shows radar on the right side with the boats marked as yellow blips in front of us and the chart on the left with the boats with AIS shown as little red blips ahead of us. It was pretty cool.

We traveled to Grand Harbor Marina where we could have an easier side trip to Shiloh battlefield but the river shows us the history. We are traveling only a few miles if viewed from overland but about 50 miles a day on the winding river. People on the river watch us. Some are aware that we are loopers. This fellow on the porch called us on the radio and said hello. He completed the loop 2 years ago and still watches the looper boats pass his home every fall. Nice guy. 

The Civil War is critical on this part of the trip. Shiloh is the next marker around here. General Grant made his name by capturing two forts in Tennessee in early 1862. Shiloh is downriver from those forts and critical to getting to Corinth MS where two major railroads controlled travel and access to the south. We already toured Johnsonville TN which was a major distribution point for the north into Tennessee, destroyed by that rascal General Forrest in 1864 but this area was controlled by the North before that. General Grant stayed at Cherry Mansion in Savannah TN next to Shiloh during the encampment at this critical junction. Evidently the ladies of the house were southern sympathisers so Grant did not wear his uniform in the house. 

 On the morning of April 6, 1862, Grant was at breakfast at Cherry Mansion and the troops, about 12,000 were at breakfast at Shiloh just down the corner, seen here from the river.

Confederate troops of the Army of the Mississippi, about 12,000 under General Johnston, a West Point grad colleague of Grant's, gathered just south of Shiloh and made an early morning raid on the union camp of the Army of the Tennessee under Grant and Sherman. Fierce fighting throughout the day moved the union soldiers back to the river. The Confederates were winning. Unfortunately General Johnston took a bullet in his femur artery and died on the battlefield. General Beauregard took over for him. They took a rest for the evening. 

Shiloh National Battlefield has signs like this all over representing battlefield highlights. The best part of the place is the 50 minute video that makes the battle come alive. It makes so much sense after seeing the video. Anyway, fighting continued on April 7, 1862 but Grant took the upper hand and pushed the rebels back to where they started. Then fresh troops from the Army of Ohio landed and really pushed the rebels back to Corinth. They were never the same. The rebels were really dejected that they lost their best general and got defeated in their home ground. 

The 10 of us in our little group had the Grand Harbor Marina van so we rode around the battlefield. We saw the Shiloh Church that experienced fighting that day. And the many monuments to the 23,700+ soldiers who died that day. We also learned that the Union army invented or implemented field hospitals at Shiloh, reducing loss of life by having doctors attend the wounded close to the battlefield instead of hauling wounded to a town for treatment. 

A stunning loss of life, especially when you consider that the north was pushed back a little then reclaimed the small bit of territory it lost the next day. 

Such a picturesque place for such a bloody couple of days. 

Shiloh is also home to Shiloh Indian Mounds, home to natives for over 4000+ years. It looks like hills but these are burial mounds and house mounds. 

We returned to Grand Harbor Marina in Counce TN. We will remember Grand Harbor as the marina where Rusty got ambushed by three springer spaniels. They look like Paul and Maeo's dog Steinway but very mean. I beat them off and we trotted away amid loud  and nasty barking. Rusty is fine. Kermit came with me the next time armed with a boat hook and rocks. No one puts Rusty in the corner. No one!

This marina looks out over a big red marker representing the corners of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. We are now at the place where the Tennesse-Tombgbee Waterway begins. We will goof around in the Tennessee River for a few more days then move to Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville AL for the Great Loop Rendezvous on 10/20 through 10/24. Life is good.

Tech Corner: Kermit added up our receipts and made some calculations. Overall we have traveled 1946 miles using 1711.12 gallons of gas. Average gas price is $4.62 per gallon. We are averaging 1.13 miles per gallon total. Since we slowed down we are averaging 1.54 miles per gallon. We put almost 200 hours on the engines. We left at about 519 hours and at the end of today's run we will be at 717 hours.We plan engine maintenance at Mobile AL around Thanksgiving - new impellers, oil change, and filters. We are not burning any oil at oil since our last oil change in Chicago. 

Cinnamon Buns and Fried Catfish! New Johnsonville TN

A relatively short ride today - about 45 miles down the Tennessee from Paris Landing State Park to Pebble Isle Marina near New Johnsonville TN.

We were last in line of the 6 boats in our little party with Jim's Joy in the lead. Kermit engaged Otto the auto pilot as often as he could in the straightaways. This reduces wear and tear on the pilot and uses less gas since we travel in a more or less straight line - straighter than we could do ourselves. That is until Otto decides to check out the scenery on the side of the river! On two occasions the boat suddenly veered to the left side in a dramatic fashion. The boat's action caught the attention of the entire group who inquired quickly whether we were ok. Kermit double checked the first time it happened to be sure we didn't snap a fish net like we did on Lake Huron. But everything was fine - except for Otto who just went a little screwy. We just have to be sure to not take it for granted and pay attention.

The river is very beautiful. I know I have said this about almost every place we have seen. It gets a little boring after a while - one beautiful scene after another. I just pull out a book. The trees are changing colors a little, the water is calm, and the sky has fascinating cloud combinations since we are ahead of a big weather front. No rain but cloudy, moving skies all day.

 Upon entering Pebble Isle Marina, you just follow the street signs!

 Deciding what to do next.,,

As we traveled today we noticed buildings sticking out of the water towards the shore and bridges/railroad tracks that jut into the water a few yards then die out. A constant reminder that this area used to be a river and is not a dammed up lake with entire towns covered by water. We saw the top of a building at one point!! It is especially easy to see these structures now that the water is pretty low.

Rusty had two great walks today - this morning at Paris Landing and this afternoon a walk and swim at Pebble Isle. He met a nice puppy about 30 pounds of mixed breed that followed us all around the ramp at Pebble Isle. Rusty was happy to make a friend although he really doesn't like to play rough anymore.

Every marina that caters to Loopers tries to find a way to distinguish themselves from the other marinas. After all, Loopers follow essentially the same route. It all starts to look the same after a while. So smart marinas find ways to separate themselves from the crowd.

Pebble Isle Marina would be a nice marina under any circumstance. The people who work there are great – nice, friendly, talkative, helpful. Fuel is low priced. The marina is tucked into a picturesque corner of the Tennessee River. The buildings themselves are nothing special. But they go a step further. Pebble Isle Marina, under the leadership of Tammy, Randy, and their team, offers great food. Surprisingly great food. The menu is nothing special. The room is ok. But the people and the food are AMAZING.

Tammy provided appetizers for our docktail hour – the sweetest, crispest, freshest catfish I have ever eaten, along with fried pickles and fried mushrooms. I don’t eat mushrooms so I don’t have an opinion on them but the fried pickles were spicy, crisp, and somehow fresher than I ever had before. Served with homemade tarter sauce. This is turning into a restaurant review, isn’t it?

We stayed for dinner and had platter after platter of fried catfish, fried chicken, hushpuppies and French fries along with the wine and beer we brought to the table. We laughed and talked and teased the nice ladies in the kitchen. There were 18 people in our group and 18 new Pebble Isle fans!!

You would think a great dinner would be enough. But Tammy and Randy have something else up their sleeves to make us raving fans – cinnamon buns and sausage biscuit. Fantastic!! This is no Pillsbury canned cinnamon buns. No sir. Randy makes these yeast buns made from scratch every morning. With a creamy frosting that is to die for. Cinnabun should be very, very worried. We leave Pebble Isle Marina 5 pounds heavier, three hours later than our normal departure, and very , very happy. Thank you so much Pebble Isle Marina!!!  You are a Looping Treasure!!

It seems like this corner of the world is just filled with really nice people. As we left the restaurant on Thursday night we met Gene Lowe (not sure of the spelling), a talkative, friendly fellow who became a new friend. He and his wife are retired now but they lived for 40 years in the Chicago area where he started a company that created heavy duty food mixing equipment. He described the intricacies of this big equipment with a great passion for his creations and was rightly proud that the equipment he designed and manufactured solves a problem. I couldn’t find this company when I googled it but he has a cool email address: bestblend based on his pride. Cool huh?

We met more loopers at this stop to add to our collection including a couple from Washington State. They had their boat shipped from Washington – a Bayliner Motor Yacht kind of like Jim and Karen Sigmunds, although probably without all the cool upgrades Jim and Karen put on.

Not all looping couples are as happy as we are! And we are fairly happy, hard to believe. Gossip on the Pebble Isle dock was the night before one couple we don’t know had a huge fight and she stormed out of town. They just started their trip, only traveling 87 miles and already she completed enough of the loop for her. According to the gossip mill, he plans to continue without her. Hah!!! NOTE: We understand that the fellow left before us and is already down the road!

It is one thing to look at this pretty scenery and say it is nice. A lot has happened in this part of the world. We are getting into Civil War country. Johnsonville was the scene of a famous Civil War battle. This Confederate General Forrest was a very smart guy. One of the few CSA generals who did not go to West Point, he started as a private and got promoted quickly based on his leadership ability. He was a particular annoyance to General Grant along the Tennessee River. 

Johnsonville, where we stayed at Pebble Isle Marina was the site of a famous battle. Actually the marina is located is located where the Union soldiers lived. Across the river is the Confederate soldier site. The river covers the site of Old Johnsonville since the dam covered the old town. 

The Union captured Johnsonville early in the war, 1862, and used it as a logistics depot to supply the entire Union army in the south. It was huge. They even built a railroad to move supplies from Nashville to this site on the Tennessee River. Several of the Union army defense lines are still preserved. Here are pictures of two at the ridge above the marina. 

This is also Davy Crockett country. The original Davy Crockett died at the Alamo in 1836 but he grew up in East Tennessee and his descendants lived in this area. There is a cemetery at the ridge in the Johnsonville State Park with markers from the Crockett family among others. Most of the markers date from just after the Civil War. 

Anyway, Forrest had the idea of taking out the entire depot to disrupt Union logistics. He did this in a spectacular fire in 1864 started from strategic cannons placed in such a way that the Union boats at dock (a couple dozen) and the Union soldiers stationed around couldn't get them. The entire depot burned. Unfortunately for the CSA or fortunately for the Union, the timing in 1864 was too late in the war. General Sherman was already  marching through the Atlanta and the war was almost over. I suspect if Forrest took out the depot earlier in the war, we would need passports to make this trip.

The State Park has a neat visitors center with a great video about the battle of Johnsonville. Another interesting element was the large number of US Colored Soldiers working at the depot. There is another visitors center across the river with the story from the CSA point of view but we didn't have time to visit that one.

It rained Thursday night. Katherine’s perspective: I didn’t hear much but was enjoyed the comforting sounds of a thunderstorm to clear the air. Kermit’s perspective: He got up twice to tighten lines in this fierce storm. Bottom line: I enjoyed the rain and Kermit worried. That about sums up our trip so far!!! At least we each have our jobs to do!!!

Update: The generator worked perfectly!! Kermit turned it on while we were driving and I made fajitas for docktails. Great food at docktails tonight from everyone!!

Technical Update: On 10/11 we traveled at about 8.3 mph using 43 gallons of gas. We did not fill up on arrival even though gas was a very reasonable 4.38 a gallon because we still have 3/4 tank left and plenty of places to get gas on this leg of the journey. On 10/12 we traveled to Clinton TN at Mile 158, another 60 mile travel day. So far we used 100.1 gallons of gas in the two days of travel. 

Critter alert: We saw flocks of white pelicans today. One time Kermit say a couple of white pelicans with an entire flock of sea gulls following after it in a goose formation. Cool! No pictures because they moved too fast. Tonight we saw a tiny green frog sitting outside our boat as we returned from dinner. Also no pictures siince we left the camera on the boat.


I forgot to share pictures of the welds on our railings. Kermit is not pleased with the way the railing looks. Our sleek, elegant looking boat has a little buggered up welds on the railing now. I am not upset by it. At least they hold. But Kermit is getting a price on a new railing. I am pretty confident we will NOT be buying an entire new railing just because the welds are bumpy.

In this photo you can see that the railing is still a little bent. Other than these minor imperfections, the rail is strong and doing its job.

Quiz Time: What the heck is this craft? Rusty can't figure it out. This craft sits at the entrance to Pebble Isle Marina. It appears to be made of metal and is sealed at all entrances. Could it be a submarine? Let us know what you think.

We traveled about 60 miles on 10/12 to Clifton TN. We traveled through a heavy haze and arrived almost at dark. I will have pictures and commentary in the next post.